Montgomery Blair

Montgomery Blair (10 May 1813-27 July 1883) was US Postmaster General from 5 March 1861 to 24 September 1864, succeeding Horatio King and preceding William Dennison Jr.. He was a member of the Republican Party's conservative wing, like his father Francis Preston Blair.

Biography
Montgomery Blair was born in Franklin County, Kentucky in 1813, the son of journalist Francis Preston Blair. He graduated from West Point in 1835 and served in the Second Seminole War for a year, but he decided to abandon a military career and become a lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri in 1839. From 1839 to 1843, he served as a district attorney, and as a judge in the court of common pleas from 1834 to 1849. In 1852, he moved to Maryland and practiced law in the US Supreme Court. From 1855 to 1858, he served as a Solicitor in the Court of Claims, but, after Blair and his family joined the new Republican Party, President James Buchanan had Blair removed from office. In 1860, he campaigned for Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency, and he was rewarded with the position of Postmaster General from 1861 to 1864. In 1864, Blair resigned due to the hostility of the Radical Republicans in Lincoln's cabinet, but he campaigned for Lincoln's re-election. During Reconstruction, Blair and his family returned to the Democratic Party, and Blair made a failed run for the US House of Representatives in 1882. He died a year later.